


filling in the spaces

by jjokkiri



Series: #kihobingo 2017 [2]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, KiHo Bingo, M/M, Office, hoseok is stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 19:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11237583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: Hoseok loses his engagement ring. Disaster ensues.





	filling in the spaces

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the _Crisis_ square of [#kihobingo](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/kihobingo). Not a part of my bingo line at all, but somehow... things happened. I hope you all enjoy!

“Minhyuk, listen to me carefully,” Hoseok said into the phone, voice clearly panicked. “When I die, I want you to know that everything from my limited edition collection of trading cards, that you want so much, will go to you. I’m talking about the one that I started when we both started walking, man. You can share with Changkyun, because I know that the both of you are crazy over my collection—you guys can have them, so long as you promise not to sell them for terribly low prices; everything is worth _at least_ $800. That’s American currency I’m talking about—at the current foreign exchange rate at this very second, got it? If you dare to sell them, you’d better check the rates again. Other than that, I know how much you want them, so you can have them. You guys can take dibs on everything else that can fit in your hand, except for the cash. All the money goes to my mother. Everything else goes to Kihyun, my fiancé whom I love with everything I have, but make sure he doesn’t sell anything that’s precious to me, because I trust that you know what my favourites are. And—”

“Wait, what the hell is going on? Are you going insane? You’d never even think of letting me breathe near your cards, what the hell is happening?” Minhyuk demanded, cutting off Hoseok’s tirade. The twenty-seven year old took a breath, the static sounding through the line with the sharpness of his inhale, when Minhyuk’s voice suddenly interrupted his almost incomprehensible (and undoubtedly incoherent) rant.

“Minhyuk, I’m going to die,” he told him. “Kihyun’s going to kill me. Kihyun is going to rip my throat out with his bare hands and murder me.”

There was half a beat of a pause on the other line, and then Minhyuk’s voice filtered through the speaker, “Oh my God, Hoseok, did you cum in his hair?”

_“No!”_

He must have sounded absolutely scandalized, but the sudden raise of his voice made him panic. _What if someone heard him?_ He was definitely not hiding in the closet for no good reasons; no one would really think of checking a closet. It was probably the best hiding spot in the company (and it was very un- _co-founder of a successful start-up_ of him to be hiding in a closet, but there were more important matters at hand—Jooheon could be the more reliable co-founder, as of the moment).

“Oh. Oh, okay.” And for a second, Hoseok could have sworn that he sounded a little disappointed at Hoseok’s immediate response. (But, if he weren’t on the verge of a mental breakdown about being murdered by his fiancé, then maybe he would roll his eyes at Minhyuk). “Please, elaborate. Tell me, in detail: why is your beloved fiancé going to kill you?”

With a soft sigh and then a sharp inhale, Hoseok spoke, “You’re alone, right? No one is with you at all?”

“Yes, I’m alone,” Minhyuk answered, promptly. Somehow, it is a little reassuring to hear. It meant they could talk. “I’m at the grocery store, but I’m alone.”

“Okay,” he said, leaning back against the door of the closet he was hiding in. He was at work, and this was extremely ridiculous, but it was a matter of life and death. He’d taken his lunch break early to call Minhyuk and avoid having to eat with his fiancé, later—something he’d never dare to do under normal circumstances, because he looked forward to every second he could spend with the love of his life. (Jooheon had given him a strange look when he’d stood up in a panic and told him that he was going to be taking his lunch break). “You can’t tell Kihyun, okay? Don’t say anything to him. Don’t freak out, and especially, please don’t tell Kihyun. Don’t ever tell Kihyun, because I want to at least live for a couple more hours.”

“Oh, this sounds serious,” his best friend injected, unhelpfully. Hoseok groaned.

“Don’t tell anyone, okay? This is just between you and me!”

“Got it,” Minhyuk told him. There was the sound of a screech, as if Minhyuk was leaning against the shopping cart and it had moved across the scratchy tiles. Hoseok exhaled slowly, closing his eyes, before staring blankly into the darkness ahead of him and speaking softly. He knew he could trust his best friend, if anything—they’d known one another for over twenty years, and if there was anyone he could blindly trust, then it would be Minhyuk. _Minhyuk wouldn’t tell Kihyun._

If Hoseok told him not to, then Minhyuk wouldn’t dare to say a word about something so important. He knew that he could trust his best friend with that much. But, still, he was terrified to say it aloud, because despite him knowing that there was no changing the facts, saying it just made it seem so much more _real_. And that was horrifying. Absolutely petrifying. _Almost as scary as the thought of being murdered in cold blood by the love of your life._

Leaning against the door for a moment and listening to make sure that he was alone (it would be bad if someone was on the other side of the closet and could hear him), Hoseok held the phone closer to his mouth and lowered his voice.

“The engagement ring, the one Kihyun gave me,” Hoseok said, slowly. There was a muted hum of understanding, and Hoseok took a breath, before saying quickly, “I lost it.”

The sound of the other line immediately cut out—as if Minhyuk had muted the device, and Hoseok immediately panicked. “Minhyuk! Minhyuk, don’t leave me alone! What am I supposed to do? I’m too young to die, you have to help me find it!”

And then, there was the rustling of motion of the other side, and it immediately calmed the blond down. Minhyuk hadn’t left him hanging—nor had he muted the phone. _Thankfully._

“How am I supposed to find your engagement ring, Hoseok? It’s your responsibility to not lose it,” Minhyuk replied from the other line. Hoseok could almost see the way he furrowed his brows in disdain at Hoseok’s unreasonable request. “I think I can say goodbye to my best friend, now. We’ve had a great friendship, Hoseok—I’m glad you get to die by the hands of your fiancé, whom you love so very much.”

“You’re a police officer! Can’t you use your police-y powers to track down my ring and find it or something? Please?”

“… my _what_?”

Hoseok paused, as if Minhyuk’s sudden confusion was enough to snap him out of the panic attack he was having over the lost ring. (Which it wasn’t, because he would find himself shortly resuming to letting terror flood through his veins at the thought of the missing ring.) It took a moment for him to register what he had said and repeat the words, with slight hesitation. “Your _police-y powers_.”

In response to his words, however, the line was eerily silent and there was the sound of a snort of amusement from his best friend. There was a sudden dread flooding through Hoseok’s veins—if there was anything he’d really learned in the twenty years that he was best friends with Lee Minhyuk—

 _“Lee Minhyuk, don’t you dare hang up on me!”_ The line went dead. Hoseok knocked his head back against the door of the closed closet and shut his eyes tightly, groaning to himself. Desperately tapping at his phone, Hoseok quickly redialed his best friend’s phone number and held the device up to his ear. Surprisingly, Minhyuk picked up his call, again.

“You have reached the personal number of Lee Min—”

Hoseok immediately cut him off.

“Minhyuk, do you remember in our junior year of high school when you broke the arm of that one limited edition stuffed animal from Japan—the one that Changkyun waited three months to pre-order, and the one that Changkyun loved more than his own life—and you made me ask my mother to buy an identical one on her trip back from Japan so that Changkyun wouldn’t hate you for life? And then, I was grounded for a week for asking for an extremely expensive gift and then immediately giving it away, and I told you that you would owe me a huge favour that you’d probably only be able to repay with your life?” Hoseok asked him, almost all in one breath. “Consider that debt repaid if you just help me out this once.”

There was a long silence, and he could practically hear the way that the gears quickly turned in Minhyuk’s head. After all, he’d promised never to bring up the case of the stuffed animal again—especially not after Minhyuk had finally convinced Changkyun to let him breathe near him (after a suffering five years of trying to get the younger man to even pay half a mind to him, because Minhyuk didn’t know when to give up).

He wasn’t sure if this was friends settling an old case, a fair deal, a bribe, or if this would be classified as blackmailing a police officer, but whatever it was, it seemed to work. He could practically _feel_ Minhyuk submitting to his request (and somehow, it was a little bit satisfying, despite his current situation).

The man on the other line heaved a heavy sigh. “Tell me what I have to do.”

 

 

 

“Baby, did you eat lunch, today? I didn’t see you in the break room, when I was there,” Kihyun’s voice was smooth and gentle, and in its entirety, it was everything that Hoseok loved, but the sound of his voice struck panic to pulse through Hoseok’s mind. Kihyun’s comforting arms wrapped around his waist from behind, and the smaller man rested his chin on Hoseok’s shoulder. Hoseok didn’t need to look at him to know that Kihyun’s lips were pursed into a small pout and his brows were furrowed, in that unique way that was _so_ _Kihyun_ and meant that he was worried. “Jooheonnie isn’t working you to death again, is he?”

Kihyun always seemed to be worried that Jooheon, his business partner, was always working him to death.

There had been a time, when they’d just graduated university and they weren’t sure what they were doing with their degrees, that they’d decided to start their own little business. That was when the work was the hardest and Hoseok’s found his health slowly slipping away from its better state—Kihyun had been worried sick, because his boyfriend wasn’t sleeping well. It had been the same for Jooheon, because they both treasured the company they’d invested everything into. At that time, despite Hoseok’s insistence that he was fine, Kihyun had quit his job at the firm he’d been recruited into straight out of university, in order to join Hoseok in his business endeavours with Jooheon—he became their Human Resource manager, taking a significant load of stress off of his boyfriend and their mutual friend from university.

That same year had Kihyun insisting on moving in with Hoseok to make sure that he slept well after a good night of rest. And it had been three years since that stressful time—Hoseok couldn’t understand why Kihyun still thought that everything would fall to that level of stress again. Everything was better, now. But, he supposed that it was better than Kihyun thinking that he was actually trying to avoid him because of the overwhelming guilt (that would hover by his side until he could find the engagement ring, again).

“No, he isn’t. I just took my lunch break a little earlier, today,” Hoseok replied, flashing a sheepish smile and putting the dishes back down into the sink. It took every nerve in his body to prevent himself from becoming rigid and making it completely obvious that he was hiding something from the younger man. And he couldn’t tell Kihyun that he was the one who abandoned Jooheon with all the paperwork, so he could call Minhyuk, either—the guilt certainly wasn’t eating him alive. “I just didn’t get to eat breakfast, so I got hungry earlier. Sorry.”

Kihyun hummed, burying his face into Hoseok’s back—he wasn’t usually so cuddly. “Why didn’t you come get me? I didn’t even get to catch Changkyun and ask him to have lunch with me.”

“I passed by your office,” Hoseok said. _Of course he did, Kihyun’s office was right across from the break room._ The best he could do was try to make Kihyun believe him—little white lies wouldn’t hurt, right? “But, you looked like you were busy with something, so I thought I shouldn’t bother you.”

“Aw, _baby_ ,” Kihyun’s voice was soft and endearing, “You know I always have time for you.”

Chuckling softly, Hoseok turned his head and wiped his hands absently on the towel he’d thrown to the side to dry his hands, later. Then, he was facing Kihyun with his back against the edge of the counter, arms wrapped around Kihyun’s waist with a small smile on his lips. (Somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but think: with his hands behind Kihyun, the younger man wouldn’t be able to see that he wasn’t wearing his engagement ring, surely.)

“When did you get so gross, mm?” he asked, softly. His eyes traced his fiancé’s features, and for a second, he found himself lost in Kihyun’s eyes—as always, because if there was something that didn’t change between the two of them, it was the way he could never understand how he got so lucky to score someone like Yoo Kihyun.

The younger man stepped onto the tips of his own toes, leaning closer to Hoseok, cheekily. He pressed their foreheads together, and even after five years of dating Kihyun, Hoseok could feel his heart pounding in his chest from their close proximity. It was amazing—the things Yoo Kihyun could do to him, whether it be just a bat of his lashes or a sweet smile; he was so in love.

“I got it from you,” Kihyun replied, eyes twinkling.

And unable to resist, Hoseok pulled him a little closer, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips. The very second they part, it seemed like they were perfectly on the same wavelength, because in unison with him, Kihyun murmured _‘I love you’_. Hoseok’s heart fluttered, and he laughed.

 

 

 

The next morning was a day off for Hoseok, so he found himself scurrying to Minhyuk’s shared apartment with Changkyun, as soon as Kihyun left for work. Changkyun had been nonchalant about a panicked Hoseok rushing into their apartment and shaking his best friend awake. The younger man simply made his coffee and watched from the kitchen island as Hoseok pulled the police officer out of his bed. It was just past 9 in the morning, and Changkyun was out of the apartment by the time Minhyuk was awake and on his feet.

Hoseok talked as Minhyuk stirred his coffee, lazily, still dressed in his pajamas and sleepy—his hair was a beautiful disaster, but they both failed to realize the fact. And if they did, then they simply didn’t care. The blond leaned against the kitchen island, talking at his red-haired best friend who seemed a little too sleepy to really comprehend anything that was leaving his mouth.

“He was so cute, yesterday,” Hoseok groaned into his hands, “I almost wanted to just tell him that I was sorry and come clean with all my sins!”

“Are your sins about the nasty things you’ve done, or are they about you losing the ring?” Minhyuk asked, staring into the swirl of cream in his coffee.

“The ring!” Hoseok exclaimed, “How am I supposed to find it? Seoul is so huge and I don’t even know where I lost it in the first place! How am I going to find it? Am I just going to die, Minhyuk?”

The red-haired man rolled his eyes and turned his head, bringing his coffee cup up to his lips, “I don’t think you could call it lost if you knew where you lost it in the first place, because then you’d just be able to go get it, right?” Hoseok shot him a look, and Minhyuk shrugged. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t die. But, I think you’re hopeless.”

“You’re my best friend,” Hoseok told him, “You’re supposed to be giving me hope, not crushing my dreams. Why are your police-y powers so useless?”

“That, my dear best friend, is because we police officers don’t actually have any _powers_ ,” Minhyuk replied, tilting his head back and chugging the mug of coffee, before making a face at it—Hoseok could never understand why Minhyuk insisted on drinking coffee when he hated the taste of it.

Hoseok laid his head down against the counter and whimpered. Minhyuk raised an eyebrow at him, placing the coffee mug into the sink and letting the water from the tap run into it.

“Changkyun is going to throw a hissy fit, if you get anything on that. He cleaned it yesterday,” Minhyuk told him. Hoseok frowned.

“Who cares about your roommate throwing hissy fits about the counter? Can’t you see I’m _distressed_?” the blond childishly whined. Minhyuk clicked his tongue, as if disbelieving of the fact that the man whining in front of him was actually twenty-seven years of age and soon to be married. Hoseok deflated, murmuring wistfully, “Kihyun would throw hissy fits about unclean counters, too.” And then there was a sharp inhale of air, “Min, do you know what he did yesterday?”

In good nature, as a best friend should, Minhyuk hummed, “What did he do?”

“He hugged me from behind after dinner. And then he told me he loved me,” Hoseok exclaimed. “It was the most adorable thing in the world, and I couldn’t even enjoy my fiancé in all his adorable glory because the _guilt_ was eating me alive!” A pause. “Min, I live in constant fear that he will find out and murder me.”

“You are _so_ dramatic,” the red-haired officer frowned.

“This is my _engagement ring_!”

Minhyuk raised both of his hands in defeat, surrendering to Hoseok’s defensive retort. He had to say that his best friend had a point, regardless of how dramatic he was being. Engagement rings were, for lack of a better word, pretty damn important. He supposed the whole _Kihyun-murdering-Hoseok_ thing wasn’t far from actually being plausible. In the few years he’d known Kihyun, it really seemed to be something they couldn’t put past him.

In short, he felt pity for his best friend.

“I can have you fill out a missing item form and I can submit it to the higher ups for a prompt search,” Minhyuk offered, “But, that is about the extent of my quoted powers.”

“But, this is supposed to be between you and me!” Hoseok said, “We can’t let other people know about it! The higher ups in your department involve Hyunwoo hyung, right? He’s dating Hyungwon! And Hyungwon works for Jooheon and me! And that means he also works with Kihyun! We can’t do that!”

The red-haired officer buried his face into his hands, resisting every urge to loudly groan at Hoseok, “Shin Hoseok, listen to me carefully: it is literally 9:45AM. At this time, this is the best thing I can think of. How do you _expect_ me to help you?”

 

 

 

“You’re so tense,” Kihyun mumbled into the crook of Hoseok’s neck, the damp locks of hair on his head tickling Hoseok. The younger man was curled up against him in their shared bed. Kihyun smelled of fresh mint and a soft note of flowers—he’d just gotten out of the shower—and his hands were carefully sliding down his fiancé’s body as if feeling the tenseness in his muscles. This was something that Kihyun did often—Hoseok could dare to call it a habit that he had. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Hoseok replied, turning around and throwing his arm around Kihyun’s waist to hold him closer. The older man buried his face into Kihyun’s hair, taking a breath and he raised a hand to run gentle fingers through his hair. “You smell good. Did you get a new shampoo?”

And he didn’t need to see his face to know that Kihyun was frowning in disapproval at his response. It hadn’t been what he was expecting. On any normal day, Hoseok could have expected for Kihyun to laugh and ask him if he didn’t smell good before, but this wasn’t typical of them—Kihyun was worried about him. And it only made the guilt worse.

“You’re not hiding anything from me, right?” Kihyun asked, softly. Hoseok averted guilty eyes from his fiancé and shook his head.

“Of course not,” he replied. For a second, there was the rush of panic flooding through Hoseok as a wave of fear that Kihyun was going to see right through his blatant lie. He’d never been the best at lying, and especially not to Kihyun.

The brunet’s hands stopped moving across Hoseok’s body and he moved his head from where it was rested at the crook of Hoseok’s neck. Opening his eyes, Kihyun raised them to look Hoseok in the eyes—and the blond could only pray that his eyes weren’t obviously shaking with the nerves that he was feeling. They were too close for Kihyun to not notice it, if it happened and he had to pretend that there was nothing wrong.

“What’s on your mind? Talk to me, Hoseok,” Kihyun whispered.

And for a second, Hoseok almost succumbed to the urge to just tell Kihyun everything—the fact that he was so guilty for having lost the expensive engagement ring that probably cost Kihyun three-quarters of his monthly salary; the fact that he had been so careless and that he didn’t have the guts to actually tell Kihyun about it. He didn’t actually think that Kihyun would murder in cold blood, probably. Of course, he was scared to tell him, but at the _very least_ , Kihyun deserved to know, right?

“Thinking about how beautiful you are, and how lucky I am to have someone like you,” he mumbled in response. Kihyun narrowed his eyes, but let the topic go with a quiet scoff.

“You’re disgusting,” he replied. “I’m not letting you go next time, got it?”

Hoseok flashed a boyish grin, “I love you.”

And then, Kihyun was holding out his hand, pinky out in front of Hoseok’s face and he had a small grin on his lips—it’s childish and entirely too endearing. It reminded Hoseok of when he first met the younger man in his senior year of high school, when Kihyun was quiet and shy. “Pinky promise that you’ll talk to me, when you need to, okay?”

Somewhere in his chest, his heart bloomed with affection at the childish action, and somehow, he felt like he was falling in love with Yoo Kihyun all over again. But, it’s ruined by the way his mind dragged itself to unnecessary details about the moment. Hoseok made a mental note that it was his left hand, and the blond awkwardly linked his right pinky finger with the younger’s. He could feel the metal of Kihyun’s engagement ring against his hand and he swallowed the guilt that washed over him again.

“Of course.”

 

 

 

“Your ring’s titanium, right?” Minhyuk asked, three days later over the phone. Hoseok had been surprised to hear his phone ring, and even more surprised to see Minhyuk’s name on the screen. It was a Thursday, and it meant that Minhyuk was on patrol all day around the city. He shouldn’t have had the time to call Hoseok, let alone talk about the missing ring.

Putting his pen down and bringing the device up to his ear, Hoseok nodded before he realized Minhyuk couldn’t see him. “Yeah, why?”

“What colour is it?” Minhyuk asked, and it triggered suspicion in the blond. He frowned.

“Silvery… and the inside of it is black titanium,” Hoseok replied. “Haven’t you seen it before? I wore it all the time, and Kihyun has an identical one.”

Though, Minhyuk and Kihyun didn’t see one another as often as he and Minhyuk did, so if Minhyuk hadn’t seen the ring on Hoseok’s finger, the chances of him having seen it on Kihyun was so much lower. Hoseok failed to connect the dots to come to that conclusion in the moment, but Minhyuk stayed quiet in response to the inquiry. And Hoseok’s _best friend instincts_ would tell him that Minhyuk was thinking about something.

“It’s Kihyun’s day off today, right? You don’t have to stay at the company to eat with him, right? Can you come see me during your lunch break?” came the request after a short moment of silence. “I’ll ask someone to cover for me during your lunch break. I have something to show you.”

“At the café by the company?” Hoseok suggested, and Minhyuk made a quiet noise of agreement.

“Perfect,” he replied. “One-thirty, right?”

“Yeah.”

 

 

 

Minhyuk was already waiting for him in the café when he got there. Minhyuk was never quite the type to be late to anything, unless it was their morning lectures when they were still in university, but it still took Hoseok by surprise to see his best friend already there. The red-haired officer was sitting at one of the tables, alone, still dressed in his uniform—his only attempt to blend in with the normal citizens in the café was the lack of his hat on his head. Hoseok moved to sit across from him, and Minhyuk instinctively offered him the extra cup of coffee he had in front of him.

“One cream and no sugar, right?” he said, pushing the drink over to Hoseok. Thanking him quietly, Hoseok took the cup and raised an eyebrow— _was Minhyuk always so strangely nice to him?_

“What did you need to see me for?” he asked. Minhyuk chuckled.

“You’re extremely excited,” he told him, and Hoseok rolled his eyes.

“You never call me when you’re on duty, so this has to be something extremely important,” he explained. Minhyuk shrugged and he smirked in amusement when Hoseok held up the coffee cup, raising a brow as if it made a point. “ _And_ you bought me coffee. Where’s my best friend and what did you do to him?”

“It is important,” he said. “I think I found your engagement ring.”

Hoseok nearly spat out the coffee that he’d just had the pleasure of taking a sip of. He sat up straight, immediately and his eyes widened. _“Really?”_

Minhyuk nodded, “Maybe.”

“Where is it?” he asked, eyes wide with anticipation and his nerves shot through him. Minhyuk reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small ring that was sitting in a tiny plastic zip bag. The glint of titanium under the light of the café had Hoseok on the edge of his seat. It was almost impossible to make out the details of the ring from the distance and the lighting, but Hoseok’s mind spun with the wave of hope that it would be _his_ engagement ring.

“Changkyun put this on my desk, yesterday night,” he said, still holding onto the titanium ring—Hoseok’s heart beat loudly in his chest in anticipation. “He just came into my room after work, put it on my desk and said that I should be able to find the owner, since I was a police officer. He said that he found it in the washroom at the company, so I thought I’d ask you about it before I actually went through the struggle and effort of doing all the paperwork and filing for a found item.”

“Can I see it?” he asked, quickly. Minhyuk nodded, opening his palm and holding out the small plastic bag with the ring to Hoseok. “Can I take it out of the baggy?”

Minhyuk shook his head, with a frown on his lips. He closed his palm again and brought the ring back to himself, “Unfortunately, even though you’re my best friend, and I haven’t done any of the paperwork—as per protocol, I _do_ have to ask you a bunch of questions to make sure that you _are_ the potential owner of it.”

“What other idiot is dumb enough to lose his engagement ring?” Hoseok exclaimed, suddenly frustrated. “And a titanium one at that! Don’t people usually have silver and gold?”

Minhyuk bit back a smirk of amusement, and Hoseok wanted to punch him in his pretty face—as if it wasn’t common enough. He shrugged, almost nonchalantly, and the idea that Minhyuk was playing with him suddenly crossed his mind. _He hated his best friend_ (with all the possible love in the world) _._ “More people than you’d imagine, honestly.”

“Fine, what is it?” he asked, exasperated. The way he practically deflated in his seat might have been comical, if Minhyuk hadn’t suddenly looked serious. If there was one thing the younger man didn’t take lightly, or playfully even, it was his job.

The red-haired officer glanced at him. “You only have to answer one question. I wouldn’t have noticed it, if Changkyun didn’t point it out to me, but—there’s an engraving on the inside of this ring,” he said. “It’s yours, if you can tell me exactly what it says.”

Without hesitation, Hoseok placed his hands flat on the table, his confidence surging as he answered: _“Wherever, whenever and forever; I love you.”_

Minhyuk made a face at the words, before he tilted the ring to check the engraving on the inside of the ring. And then, his face twisted into mild disgust before he shoved the ring over to Hoseok. “That’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard,” he told him. “That’s definitely yours, what the Hell? Which one of you came up with that?”

Hoseok flushed, rapidly taking the ring out of the plastic baggy and slipping it haphazardly onto his own finger. “Me,” he mumbled, “It was me. I said it when I proposed without the ring. He got it engraved when he got my ring made—he got it engraved on his, too.”

“Of course you did,” Minhyuk feigned gagging. “You’re so gross. You’re welcome, by the way. You should thank Changkyun, whenever you see him.”

“Yeah—” the smile returned to Hoseok’s lips for the first time in a while. “Yeah, of course.”

Minhyuk beamed at him, and then there was a moment of silence between them, before the younger man’s eyes brightened and he straightened up in his seat. He clasped his hands together neatly on the table, eyes shining as he looked at Hoseok. There was some sort of foreboding feeling in Hoseok’s mind, when he noticed his best friend’s posture—it was almost like his mind was trying to warn him of some sort of impending doom.

Minhyuk’s smile was entirely too sweet; “Oh, by the way… that debt from high school. That’s repaid, now, right?”

Hoseok groaned, rolling his eyes as he tore his eyes away from the glistening ring around his finger.

“ _Clearly_ , my best friend didn’t go anywhere at all.”

 

 

 

Kihyun was cooking when he came home—the savoury scent of food filled their shared apartment, and Hoseok found his way into the kitchen, immediately wrapping his arms around the younger man’s waist from behind. His heart was infinitely lighter—after a week of not wearing the engagement ring on his finger, its presence was a significant improvement to his mood. And as per usual, his fiancé didn’t even flinch at the sudden touch—he simply continued to chop the vegetables on the cutting board, and his only acknowledgement of Hoseok was a soft hum.

“I’m home,” he murmured into the back of Kihyun’s neck after placing a quick, gentle kiss there. He nuzzled his nose against the younger man’s jaw, until Kihyun turned his head and let him press a kiss to his lips. Kihyun’s lips curled into a small smile, eyes twinkling under the light—it had Hoseok entranced, again.

“Welcome home, my love. You’re touchy, today,” Kihyun remarked, amusement lacing his tone. Turning his head to look back to the cutting board, Kihyun slammed the knife down against the vegetables with a loud _thud!_ Hoseok flinched. “Did you finally find your ring, or something?”

His fiancé’s words immediately smashed the dreamy atmosphere around them, and Hoseok’s eyes widened.

“What?” Fear suddenly pooled into Hoseok’s stomach, and his arms which were wrapped around Kihyun’s waist tightened a little in response to the way his breath caught in the back of his throat.

“Your engagement ring,” Kihyun clarified. “Didn’t you lose it?”

“You—you knew?” _Had he been that bad at hiding it?_

“Oh, of course,” Kihyun answered, raising an eyebrow. His tone was low, and dangerous and Hoseok’s blood ran cold in his veins— _terrified_. “Changkyun told me when he found the ring in the washroom, at the company. He thought it was mine.”

Incoherently, Hoseok stumbled over his words, trying to force himself to formulate some sort of reasonable excuse to avoid his fiancé’s wrath. He was ready to beg for forgiveness from the younger man, when Kihyun’s eyes suddenly brightened again, and he looked the complete opposite of angry—perhaps, _pleasant, even?_

“You found it, right?” Kihyun prompted, innocent smile curling onto his lips. Hoseok’s brows furrowed in confusion, and he dumbly nodded. Kihyun’s smile grew—his voice was soft and relieved (and the complete opposite of what Hoseok was expecting), “Good. I’m glad. I would have hated to wait for the jeweller to custom make you a new one. That would take forever.”

Hoseok cleared his throat, stammering, _“Y-you’re not mad?”_

Kihyun blinked at him. “You found it, didn’t you? There’s no reason to be mad at you for something that’s over, baby. You already found the ring, and that’s good enough for me.”

Relief washed over the blond and he buried his face into Kihyun’s neck, “Oh my god,” he breathed. _“I love you.”_

“Of course you do,” Kihyun replied, smiling. “I love you, too. I love you _so much_.”

And that peaceful atmosphere returned to them, until Kihyun made a soft sound—as if he’d suddenly remembered something.

“Baby, I forgot to tell you,” he started, “Your mother called, earlier. She said that she’s going out of town for a week—so, we’re going to be babysitting your little brother for a while. You know what that means, right? That means that we can’t have sex, anymore. We can’t do anything while your _little brother_ is here, isn’t that unfortunate?”

Hoseok froze. Hoseok’s mother never dropped his little brother off with them, unless Kihyun asked her to. And, Hoseok’s little brother loved Kihyun so much, so there wasn’t a chance that he’d turn it down. They had a babysitter who was always willing to take care of his little brother—there wasn’t a need for them to have to look after him. But, this was Kihyun’s passive-aggressive way of getting back at him, and Hoseok felt his relief suddenly vanishing, only to be replaced with the bitter realization. _He was still mad_.

_“That’s not a problem, is it, baby?”_

_Definitely still mad._

Hoseok swallowed, biting back the pathetic whimper which threatened to leave his lips. “Of course not, babe.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated and loved. Feel free to find me on Twitter @kkyunjus!


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